Author: Jonathan Miller

The entire concept of bifurcated appraisals represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the appraisal process. To have an individual inspect a property and then convey that information to an appraiser to complete the valuation is tragically flawed because: Inspections and qualifications of an inspector are not standardized, not insured, not licensed (a convicted felon was caught doing one of these) An immense part of understanding the value of property occurs while walking through it (like observing the occupancy of 50 feral cats) It is generally more expensive (but I think its cheaper) to parse the functions out Places the consumer at...

TAF spent $1.4 million dollars lobbying over the past four years using the revenue they take in from appraisers… To set the stage of the complete disdain for the appraisal industry and the public trust… In the 2019 TAF 990 Filing, and based on the assumption their compensation has increased in the last three years, the two leaders of TAF, Dave & Kelly, run a 12 employee entity and make a staggering ± $750,000 annually. No wonder they don’t want to accept grant money to enable oversight in a not-for-profit! But it gets worse… TAF spent $1.4 million dollars lobbying...

From the organization that brought you the bat-shit crazy letter and the chickenshit letter, they are charging for classes that are misleading. ASC just sent a letter to state appraiser regulatory officials pointing out that the USPAP update course is factually inaccurate and puts appraisers in legal jeopardy if they follow it. Letter From Jim Park, Director ASC to State Appraiser Regulatory Officials: 2022-2023 7-Hour National USPAP Update Course The letter references findings and recommendations found in the already presented report 6 months ago: Identifying Bias and Barriers, Promoting Equity: An Analysis of the USPAP Standards and Appraiser Qualifications Criteria This is the meat & potatoes...

The results of this 2021 white paper: Appraisal overvaluation: Evidence of price adjustment bias in sales Comparisons co-authored by Frank Nothaft are pretty interesting. At first glance, I get the CoreLogic evil empire stuff, but step back and take it all in. Here’s the abstract. Home appraisal came under scrutiny for contributing to the home-price bubble and enabling the origination of risky mortgages that led to the post-2006 foreclosure crisis. Subsequent regulations tried to minimize or eliminate conflicts of interest and improve valuations. Nonetheless, our study of appraisals completed in 2015 and 2016 find that appraisal bias still occurred. Our...